How many people can say they’ve cooked in a professional kitchen at Le Cordon Bleu? Thanks to Parmigiano Reggiano I got the chance to cook with fellow food bloggers under the expert guidance of chef Eric Bédiat, Head Cuisine Chef at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu.
Chef Eric has worked at many Michelin-starred restaurants, such as Waldos at Cliveden House and the 3 Michelin-starred Waterside Inn in Bray.
We arrived at Le Cordon Bleu and were greeted with a glass of prosecco and a table full of Parmigiano Reggiano to taste. We were also given a special apron, a cloth and a little book with our two recipes for the evening.
I was delighted to see some friendly faces – Kassie of Our London Life, Connie of Connie Consumes and Hari of Hari Ghotra – who has a new cookbook out! And I also met some lovely new bloggers too, like Vicky and Naomi.
Once we’d finished our wine, we headed down to the professional kitchen to get cooking! When I looked at what we were going to cook, I was pretty terrified… I even WhatsApped my husband and joked that this would be a true test of whether I could ever hack Masterchef.
To my relief, for the dessert we only had to make little balls out of our apples and Chef Eric and his assistants would do the rest. PHEW. Our little apple balls went off to be vacuum packed and sous vide in a water bath.
Our job was to focus on the main of glazed soft corn polenta, wild mushrooms, purple sprouting broccoli, pickled grapes and Parmigiano Reggiano foam. My mouth waters just thinking about it.
Chef Eric talked us through the method, step by step, and cooked along with us. The polenta had been pre-made and put into molds so we just needed to grate parmasen over them then glaze them in the oven. The pickled grapes had been prepared in advance too and can I just say what a revelation pickled grapes are!
It was really fun cooking together although I always seemed to be finished before everyone else. I’d be that contestant on Masterchef who finishes after and hour when they have an hour and a half.
Chef Eric then showed us how to plate up and of course his finished plate was absolutely stunning. Although no surprise there.
Once we had finished preparing our main, we took it upstairs to enjoy it paired with Girapoggio from Sangiovese di Romagna DOC, which was chosen by Le Cordon Bleu’s Wine Development Manager, Matthieu Longuère.
Our desserts were then brought up to us to finish off the meal. The dessert was a Braeburn apple fondant with vanilla syrup, almond crumble and Parmigiano Reggiano ice-cream. It was fabulous! The ice-cream was sublime and worked so well with the slightly tart apple.
I had such a wonderful time at this workshop and I’m looking forward to trying to replicate these recipes – particularly the parmesan ice-cream. Thank you Parmigiano Reggiano, Brand Dialogue and Le Cordon Bleu for a fabulous, fun evening and for the goodie bags!
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